Let’s face it, a lot of average Texans don’t know who the speaker of the Texas House is, much less what he does.

But House Speaker Tom Craddick is powerful.

Roughly two weeks after Republicans saw their grip on the House slip for the second-straight cycle, and two months before the next legislative session, the man known as “autocratic” Craddick should be — politically speaking — a dead man walking.

The House GOP advantage, which stood at 81-69 two years ago, now stands at 76-74 after the Nov. 4 elections. And, depending on the outcome of a recount in a Dallas-area district where the Republican incumbent holds a 20-vote lead, the chamber could be split right down the middle.

Yet foes plotting to replace the hyper-partisan Republican hard-liner with a more moderate choice are cautiously playing the cat-and-mouse game as if Craddick is very much still the cat.

They can’t be blamed. The speaker makes committee assignments and sets the tone for which major pieces of legislation will live and die in a legislative session.

Payback can be as powerfully discreet as simply putting the word out to let another member’s legislation die on the vine without ever being put to a vote.

But Craddick, to be sure, is weaker than he’s ever been.

You can see it in the com? ments of his onetime loyalists.

Burt Solomons, a Carrollton Republican and one of Craddick’s committee leaders, was quoted by Austin bureau reporter Gary Scharrer last week as saying he’s “not ready to declare anything in connection with who should be or should not be speaker of the House.”

“I like Tom. I personally don’t have a problem with Tom. I’m a chairman under Tom, but I am very concerned about the entire House,” Solomons said. “A lot of us are concerned. It’s not just a couple of people trying to create a stir.”

State Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon is similarly caught between a rock and a hard place. Known as one of the “Craddick Ds” who helped Craddick become speaker, the San Antonio Democrat is feeling the heat from Republicans and members of her own party who are hungry for a leadership change.

“My phone is ringing off the hook,” she said Friday.

In 2006, with Republicans holding a 12-seat House advantage, McClendon stood to gain by sticking her neck out because it was a safer bet that Craddick would hold on to power.

Two years later, with the partisan margin all but erased, McClendon declared herself a free agent.

“I’m not committed,” she said. “The House is almost equally divided now. I’m trying to process it and see where this is going to go.”

Reading between the lines, McClendon and other Democrats are waiting to see if enough House Republicans can settle on an alternate choice to Craddick. If that happens, Craddick’s time ruling the roost will be over.

If GOP members fail to arrive at a consensus, Craddick may survive as speaker.

“Right now there are 76 Republicans, and they are going to decide who the next speaker will be,” McClendon said. “Once they decide who they’re backing, a lot of things will begin falling into place.”

That’s another way of saying the current crop of Republicans who have floated their names for speaker don’t have the backing to seal the deal.

If ever there was a time for a wild card candidate to emerge, this is probably it.